Rural Crime Initiative Boosted with Cartwright Police Vehicles

Wednesday, 15 November, 2017

Nigel Coupe (pictured left) from Lincolnshire Police and Toby Carter from Cartwright Conversions with one of the new Ford Kugas.

Cartwright Conversions has supplied ten new police vehicles to Lincolnshire Police for their officers to use in the fight against rural crime across the county. The vehicle conversion specialists delivered the modified Ford Kuga patrol vehicles two weeks ahead of schedule with a bespoke dash panel designed specifically for the SUV. Electrical engineers moved the factory-fit Ford radio into the glovebox to make room for an electrical control panel and an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera screen. Alongside the emergency lighting package and warning system, Cartwright’s certified installers have fitted an RSG data logging system which will track the vehicles’ activity. Cartwright Conversions specialises in the design and build of vehicles for the emergency services and mobility sector. Its parent company – the Cartwright Group – is one of the UKs leading commercial vehicle bodybuilders established in 1952. Toby Carter, Sales Manager at Cartwright Conversions said: “Our team of electrical engineers and bodybuilders made every effort to deliver this project ahead of schedule.” “We were able to complete the full conversion from our dedicated ISO 9001 facility in Doncaster and by doing it all under one roof we saved a significant amount of time.” The Ford Kuga has an all-wheel-drive (AWD) intelligence system that will give officers in Lincolnshire the ability to drive across difficult terrain in a challenging rural environment. Hare coursing is one of the rural crimes that offices across the county hope to target with the help of these new vehicles. The pursuit of hares using dogs is popular at this time of year when Lincolnshire’s flat landscape has been cleared of crops after the harvest. Nigel Coupe, Fleet Manager at Lincolnshire Police said: “I’d like to thank Cartwright Conversions for their excellent service in turning these Ford Kugas into operational police vehicles and we are delighted with the high-standard of work completed by their technicians.

“These vehicles will give us more flexibility to tackle crime and will help improve our response to incidents. Our officers will be able to go where they previously couldn’t in a police car – such as into a crop field to find where a stolen vehicle has been hidden or to pursue a hare courser trying to make an escape using an off-road track.

“Attempting this in a police car would cause significant damage to the vehicle so previously our officers have had to accept lifts from farmers or traipse through fields on foot to reach a crime scene. MF

“Our distinctive county also has vast areas of challenging terrain with low hills and steep valleys and in bad weather these can be treacherous. When our officers are trying to keep people safe it’s important that they themselves feel safe to tackle the conditions. Now our officers can get where they need to quickly and safely – improving our service to communities.”